Starkville mayoral forum set for tonight

STARKVILLE -- The Starkville Young Professionals will hold their third and final public forum tonight for candidates in the upcoming Starkville municipal election.

The forum will feature all four candidates in the race for mayor, said Grady Dixon, chairman of Starkville Young Professionals.

Incumbent Mayor Dan Camp is set to square off May 5 in the Democratic primary election against challengers Matt Cox and Parker Wiseman. Cox currently serves as Ward 5 alderman while Wiseman graduated from law school at the University of Mississippi in 2008 and now practices in Starkville.

The winner of the Democratic primary will face the only Republican candidate in the mayoral race, Marnita Henderson, in the June 2 general election. Henderson, who has attended city Board of Aldermen meetings for the past decade, is retired, but worked 38 years for the state Board of Health as a nurse.

Audience members tonight will have the opportunity to question the candidates on issues facing the city and their plans for the future. The candidates will have one minute to respond to each question.

The first forum featured nine candidates running for seats on the Board of Aldermen and the second forum brought together six more. The smaller gathering tonight could allow citizens to ask more questions of the mayoral candidates than in past forums, Dixon said.

"With only four candidates, one of two things will happen: We''ll get in a lot more questions or we''ll end early," Dixon said. "I''m guessing we''ll get in a lot more questions."

The event will begin at 6 p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn on Highway 12. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m.